UP races to 2nd spot in attracting investment

Bangalore:

Among the top 20 investment attracting states, Karnataka has emerged as most preferred destination with the highest share of 9.1 per cent in domestic investment plans in April-September 2010, as per 'Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India Investment Meter (AIM).'

Karnataka clocked an year-on-year growth of 73.8 per cent and attracted investments of Rs 3,88,578 crore.

Uttar Pradesh acquired second spot with a growth of 75.5 per cent (y-o-y) and 4.7 per cent share of total investments in April-September 2010-11. The state attracted massive investment plans of Rs 205,189 crore during the period.

Power and services were prominent among the sectors attracting major share investment.

As per the AIM assessment report for corporate investments across states and sectors, total investment plans of India Inc increased significantly from Rs 7,971,464 crore in 2009 to Rs 10,097,472 crore during April-September, 2010.

"The total investment intentions tracked in the AIM study reflects encouraging signs of pick up in investments and acceleration in the overall growth rate.

The factors such as delay in infrastructure expansion plans, hurdles in legal procedures and political instability have adversely affected the implementation of these investment projects across the states", said Assocham President Dilip Modi.

Availability of rich mineral resources like coal and ironore along with cheap manpower availability helped Jharkhand rank among top three states in attracting corporate investments.

The state was ranked third on investment radar with total planned investments at Rs 2,00,141 crore having a share of 6.3 per cent in total investments in H1 of FY 2010-11.

Jharkhand recorded a hike of about 45.9 per cent in overall investments over the previous year. Among the sectors manufacturing and power companies received the major proportion of investments.

Gujarat and Orissa stood at fourth and fifth position by attracting investment plans worth Rs 196,305 crore and Rs 191,382 crore, respectively during in H1 of 2010-11.

One time preferred destination for India Inc., Gujarat has slipped to fourth spot with the state seeing a mere 17.3 per cent in investments over the same period of the previous fiscal.

In terms of sectoral analysis, the study shows that with increasing energy needs of the rapidly growing Indian economy, for investors power sector figures out as a nest egg to invest in.

The sector witnessed bulk of investments worth Rs 3,643,883 crore with a share of 35.4 per cent in overall investments plans across India in April-September of current fiscal.

During the period, the manufacturing sector has also been favoured by the industrialists for investment. The sector registered a 26.3 per cent growth while attracting total investments of Rs 2,704,211 crore.

Followed by the manufacturing sector, services sector emerged as the third priority sector which attracted proposed investments of Rs 2,162,950 crore, contributing 21.0 per cent in overall investments made in the period FY 2010-11.

Other sectors which recorded high flowing corporate investments in April-September of 2010-11 were real estate which attracted Rs 1,172,823 crore (11.4 per cent), mining Rs 308,716 crore (3.0 per cent) and irrigation Rs 3,01,350 crore (2.9 per cent).